WELCOME BACK, GOLFERS.

FALL GOLF CLASSES!

Now that the Sonoma County Fairgrounds Golf Course is back open for business, that means Fall Golf Classes are on the horizon! If you are interested in taking a Golf Class to have fun and improve your game, now is your chance to get signed up! Our Head Golf Professional Taylor Battaglia will be offering multiple Golf Classes for all ages and skill levels! So if you are interested in taking a Golf Class this Fall season to improve your game, make sure to email Taylor as soon as possible to reserve your spot!

Fall Junior Golf League

Interested in signing up your junior for a fun after school Golf League? Here is your chance! Our Head Golf Professional Taylor Battaglia will teach the league. Each week juniors will go over different skills of the game and get to play competitively on the golf course in a learning atmosphere. They will learn to keep score in an electric format on an official score sheet, as well as learn new rules and strategies. For more information or to get your junior signed up please email Taylor by clicking the link below!

Ladies Fall Golf Class

Looking for a fun Fall Golf Class to help improve your game? Here’s your chance! Our Head Golf Professional Taylor Battaglia will teach the class. Each class ladies will go over a golf rule and a golf skill. It’s a great environment for beginners as well as intermediate players that are looking to get their game back into shape! For more information or to get signed up, please email Taylor by clicking the link below!

Fall Adult Golf Class

If you are interested in taking a golf class to sharpen up your skills, then this is the class for you! Our Head Golf Professional Taylor Battaglia will teach the class, where each week we will cover a different area of the game as well as different rules that you may not be familiar with. This class is for everyone, and it’s a great environment for beginners and even intermediate players looking to take their game to the next level! For more information or to get signed up please email Taylor by clicking the link below.

If you are interested in joining our team, we are looking for someone to work part time Outside Services here at the Fairgrounds Golf Course.
The job position and duties include driving the range picker to collect and clean range balls each night, as well as keeping the Driving Range and facility clean and presentable for our customers. The Job comes with golf privileges and a fun working environment, at a beautiful 9 hole golf course in Sonoma County. If you are interested in joining our team please contact our Head Golf Professional Taylor Battaglia at tbattaglia@fairgroundsgolfcourse.com or call us at 707-284-3520.

ST. LOUIS — It produces a hodgepodge of winners. That’s the stigma associated with the PGA Championship. Compared to other majors’ ignominies—like the weather predicating who captures the claret jug or USGA officials unnecessarily intervening at the U.S. Open—the PGA’s alleged stain is relatively innocuous. But that belief is real, and Golf Digest’s own Brian Wacker set off a firestorm for reflecting that sentiment in a recent column, one that drew blowback from some past champions.

But is it fair? Or more importantly, correct? We know there are a host of names engraved on the Wanamaker Trophy that won’t sniff the Hall of Fame, yet every tournament boasts such a roll call. Which got us thinking: Which major—year in, year out—produces the “best” and “worst” winners?

For our investigation we used OWGR data from 2000 to 2017, giving each major 18 submissions for 72 winners total. Why 2000? That year Titleist’s Pro V1 and Nike’s solid-core Tour Accuracy golf balls were introduced, which from an equipment perspective is viewed as the parcel in how the game was played, and how it is today. Plus, manually charting this test became time-consuming, and 18 and 72 seemed apropos golf numbers.

Mentioned above, we pulled a player’s Official World Golf Ranking the week before their major triumph, giving us a snapshot of their stature in the game pre-victory. OWGR does have its critics, but it’s the best barometer available to illustrate this idea of a player’s standing.

So what does that equation reveal? This century, the Open Championship produces the “worst” winner, with an average OWGR rank of 42.55. The Masters has the highest average OWGR winner at 15.77, followed by the U.S. Open with a 21.83 mark and the PGA at 33.22.

That the Masters is decidedly lower than its major brethren is not a surprise. Only 85 to 90 players tee it up at Augusta National, a limited field compared to the competitions at the other three majors. The green jackets want to ensure a “name” entity join their ranks, and—judging by these numbers—that endeavor’s been a success.

However, there are outliers, so what happens if we subtract the highest OWGR winner from each tournament? Call this the Ben Curtis Corollary, because without his Cinderella story in the mix, the Open Championship jumps the PGA, 21.94 to 25.23. (The Masters remains the lowest at 12.65, the U.S. Open trailing at 18.41.)

There is another part to this equation. Chiefly, how often does a championship cater to the best in the world? Amazingly, the PGA Championship comes out on top, with nine of its last 18 winners—Tiger Woods three times, Rory McIlroy twice, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington and Jason Day—ranking inside the top five in the world. That’s three more than the Masters and the British, and four better than the U.S. Open.

Moreover, only five times has the PGA Championship winner been ranked outside the top 30 this century. That’s equal to the U.S. Open, with six British Open victors outside the top 30 (the Masters has just two such instances: Zach Johnson and Angel Cabrera).

Mentioned above, the OWGR data provides only a glimpse before a player’s win, failing to showcase what followed. For example, Justin Thomas enters Bellerive as the defending PGA champion, ranked No. 2 in the world. A ranking markedly better than his No. 14 standing the week before his Quail Hollow triumph. Conversely, every major battles this issue, which somewhat negates its wrath.

Still, the OWGR numbers give us an idea of the merit of each event’s winner. And, at least this century, the PGA more than meets the standards of a major champion.